"Pacific Rim" is exactly what it's supposed to be - eye-popping, action-packed Sci-Fi fun!

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2015)

Some movies stand absolutely no chance of winning a Best Picture Oscar but that's okay. Movies don't have to be a showcase for brilliant actors, touch your heart or change the world in order to be worthwhile. Isn't "to be entertained" the simple reason that we go to the movies in the first place? Of course, I'm often entertained by movies that do one or more of the things that I just listed, but sometimes a movie is entertaining just because it's FUN. And "Pacific Rim" (PG-13, 2:05) is a lot of fun! In this movie, enormous, ugly, ill-tempered sea creatures (called Kaiju) periodically emerge from the Pacific Ocean, come ashore and wreak havoc on populated areas of countries that border the world's largest body of water. The only thing that humans have found to fight these extremely unpleasant monsters with any degree of success are giant robots (called Jaegers) operated by two people inside the robot's head. These two "pilots" make the Jaeger's arms and legs move by moving their own arms and legs, oh, and sharing their thoughts and synchronizing their actions through some sort of high tech mind meld. Sound dumb? It is. And delightfully so! As quirky characters mix with serious warriors who are all trying to stem the increasing tide of unwanted visitors emerging from the deep, they forge bonds, solve problems and get to the bottom of why all this is happening and how to stop it. The basic story, the relationships between the characters, and the way they deal with problems aren't terribly original (borrowing from any number of movies, to include "Transformers", "Godzilla", "Starship Troopers", "Avatar", "Independence Day", "Armageddon", "Top Gun" and even "Inception"), but it's still very enjoyable to watch. Here's one example: When the leader of the pilots gets up on a vehicle and makes a rousing speech that ends with the line "Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!", you'll probably think of Bill Pullman's big moment before the climactic battle in "Independence Day", but it won't bother you.
One reason I liked this movie so much is the actors – especially Idris Elba ("Prometheus", "Luther", "The Big C") as Stacker Pentecost (!), the man in charge of the Jaeger program (or whatever they call it – it really doesn't matter), Charlie Day ("Horrible Bosses", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") as an over-caffeinated scientist who just might be able to figure out the answer to how to save the world, and Ron Perlman (the "Hellboy" movies, "Sons of Anarchy") as a mysterious man who is able to help Day's character – and who wears the coolest shoes ever captured on film. Also appealing are Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi as the very different, but very well-matched heroes who pilot the oldest Jaeger in the inventory at a critical moment in the effort to rid the world of the Kaiju once and for all.
The main thing this movie has going for it is the visual effects. Just about every frame of this movie explodes with color – more than in any live-action movie I can remember seeing – and the 3-D makes that color seem to go on forever. The sound effects are pretty amazing too. I'd give the film Oscars in several of the technical categories. But don't worry about how many awards "Pacific Rim" did or didn't win – just see it, if possible, while wearing those plastic glasses with the special lenses! For not having any higher goal than giving people a good time watching a movie (and delivering) and for its stunning audio and visual effects, I give "Pacific Rim" an "A"!